In our real life, items or devices with hinged components are used all around. Two hinged components in these items or devices usually need to be opened. To keep the two hinged components in an opened state for a certain time after they are opened, a supporting mechanism is required to be provided between the two hinged components. For example, in a conventional financial self-service machine, paper currencies are required to be separated one by one and conveyed to a specified position in a long conveying passage, jam may occasionally occur when a single piece of paper currency is conveyed in the long conveying passage. Also, after the apparatus is used for a long time, the conveying passage needs to be cleaned, maintained and inspected. Therefore the conveying passage of the financial self-service machine is generally designed to include a first component and a second component which are pivotally connected and openable.
When the conveying passage is flipped, the first component 1 which is movable needs to be flipped. In order to maintain the flipped first component in the opened state, a supporting frame mechanism is employed to support the first component to facilitate inspection or maintenance of the second component. A conventional supporting mechanism is provided with a torsion spring disposed on a pivot shaft for hinging the first and second components, and a supporting member mounted between the first component and the second component. As shown in FIG. 1, this combined supporting mechanism is controlled by a spring 91 and a position-limiting supporting member 92 to be opened and closed. To open an upper cover 93, a cylindrical pin 94 of the upper cover 93 slides along a clamping slot of the supporting member 92. After the upper cover 93 is opened in place, the cylindrical pin 94 of the upper cover 93 is stuck in a groove of the supporting member 92, thus preventing the upper cover from falling back. To close the upper cover, the upper cover may be closed only when the supporting member is manually pulled open. Although this solution is safe and reliable, this solution has a cumbersome operation and a low efficiency.
Apparently, a gas spring may be mounted between the first component and the second component to realize a position-limiting supporting, however, the cost of the gas spring is high, which is not advantageous to cost control.